First, the shopping experience with Danny @ FI was great. I gave him a call, and he talked me through all of the different configurations possible (cat-back vs full-back, H vs X pipe, 8" vs 14" resonators, tip selection, etc) to help me land on the FI Stainless Cat-Back X-Pipe w 8" Resonators.
I chose this configuration because it seemed like the best compromise of loudness and tone between a full-back (pretty loud) and a typical resonated cat-back (pretty quiet). I got it during the winter sale, which cost me around $1k + shipping.
I had it installed by Bryan at Independent Tuning in Toronto. Good guy, quality work, clean shop, fair price.
He adjusted the fit nicely, so the tips sat flush with the lower bumper (like stock) and centred in the rear valence cutouts. The larger tips fill up the openings very nicely - better than stock IMO.First thing I noticed when Bryan started it up (I was standing beside) was that it had a similar tone to stock at idle, only louder. A few blips of the throttle made it much more obvious that things were different. Much more noticeable volume at take-off, and very smooth sounding - not "raspy" at all. Tone gets higher pitched with RPM's, which I like. In comparison, sound clips of the Motorklasse system (which I was also considering) sounded to me like the tone didn't change as much as the volume at higher revs. Never heard it in person, so I could be wrong.
My new FI system made a excellent first impression with me as an observer.
From inside the cabin, I noticed the increased volume immediately at start-up. Again, similar tone to stock, only slightly louder. Once it settles in to idle (~800 RPMs?), it would be difficult to tell the difference from stock.
From take-off, I immediately noticed a jump in volume at 1200 RPMs, and then a drop off at 1800 RPM's. I'd say the peak increase in volume happens between 1400-1600 RPMs. This happens both when accelerating up through the revs, and also on the way back down from higher revs. Not sure if this is "drone" because I'm not really familiar with it from previous experience. It's easily tolerable, but it would change your conversation volume until you're outside of the 1200-1800RPM range again. City driving makes this phenomenon more noticeable since you go through that range constantly.
Above 1800 RPM's, it returns back to being a louder version of stock. Slightly more volume and throatier than stock, but still very smooth sounding even under load. Very refined sound.
On the highway at cruising speed, it's quiet. You can start to hear its throatiness again under load, but it's not obtrusive at all. The only odd thing is a faint "woof" from the system when letting off throttle when cruising. Almost reminds me of the sound when accelerating and up-shifting a DSG transmission. The DSG "puff" is much more noticeable than this, but it's almost like a slight "surging" sound.
From a performance perspective, I don't notice a difference in power. I almost thought the throttle response was better, but the more I think about this I think it's probably just that I can hear the throttle changes more now - making me notice the blips and response more now.
My overall thoughts: I definitely like the sound (and look) of the system.
If I could change one thing, it would be to flatten out the jump in volume between 1200-1800 RPM to make it more linear with the rest of the rev range.
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Originally Posted by ajb007
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